Clean or Stolen?

This is a discussion on Clean or Stolen? within the General Firearm Discussion forums, part of the Related Topics category; A good bit of the guns I've acquired have been through private sale. Recently, a friend of mine was involved in a legal incident, but ...

Clean or Stolen?

A good bit of the guns I've acquired have been through private sale. Recently, a friend of mine was involved in a legal incident, but the gun involved (he bought it 10+ years ago) ended up coming back as stolen. This of course got me thinking..

When I buy through private sale, I record their CWP/ID# on the bill of sale. Is there any way for a civilian to "run" a gun's SS and be able to tell if it's stolen or not? Or any extra precautions I can I take?

I just call the SO and asked them to do a stolen guns check on a gun I was about to buy. Works 99% of the time.
The 1 %, I called and got a clean bill of health on the gun. A week later the SO called and ask if I still had the gun.

With an Yes answer I was asked to bring it down to the SO.

Seems like the owner had been on vacation for a couple of weeks and reported it stolen when he returned. NO Big deal. filled out the report on When Where Whom and how much. Went on my way, Never did hear anything else from the SO.

Oh Yes the owner got the gun back and I lost the money. Not even a thank you by the owner. It took me 6 months to find out who the owner was.

Looks like I'll just have to compile a list and see if they could run them all. I'd hate to be involved in a good shoot just to find out I used a stolen weapon to defend myself. (This is the situation my friend found himself in)

great info thanks, I like to buy guns from private individuals too, fortuanetly have many friends in the local pd, chief lives across the street from me, and a couple work with me doing motorcycle safety and have always had them checked before buying.. but had the misfortune to buy a stolen atv, when I tried to license it, came back stolen spent 3 months fixing it and repairing to have it taken away.... (bought it cheap because it was broken)

Looks like I'll just have to compile a list and see if they could run them all. I'd hate to be involved in a good shoot just to find out I used a stolen weapon to defend myself. (This is the situation my friend found himself in)

Did anything happen to your friend as a consequence of the weapon being stolen? Generally if you are a good faith buyer it will not impose criminal liability; there is no duty to run serial numbers (you'll have to give up the gun, though, because the true owner's title trumps all others in possession).

On the other hand, I see your point as to why you do not want to have purchased a stolen weapon.

Did anything happen to your friend as a consequence of the weapon being stolen? Generally if you are a good faith buyer it will not impose criminal liability; there is no duty to run serial numbers (you'll have to give up the gun, though, because the true owner's title trumps all others in possession).

On the other hand, I see your point as to why you do not want to have purchased a stolen weapon.

As of right now, nothing has happened to him. They're treating it as a good faith purchase. It's just really the worrying of what might happen down the road because of it added onto the anguish taking a life can cause. I can't really blame him, you never know what an attorney has up their sleeve.

It just really got me thinking because I've always bought in good faith, tried to keep what records I could, didn't buy from shady characters, etc. just as he did and though it might be deemed as in good faith, the last thing I'd want to be dealing with after a good shoot is even more what-if's.

As of right now, nothing has happened to him. They're treating it as a good faith purchase. It's just really the worrying of what might happen down the road because of it added onto the anguish taking a life can cause. I can't really blame him, you never know what an attorney has up their sleeve.

It just really got me thinking because I've always bought in good faith, tried to keep what records I could, didn't buy from shady characters, etc. just as he did and though it might be deemed as in good faith, the last thing I'd want to be dealing with after a good shoot is even more what-if's.

Too bad about your friend being in a shoot. And with a hot gun.

I may have been incorrect re owner's title. Recording the sale by a bill of sale with the seller is a good practice - names, address, and SN. That will go a long way in establishing you as a good faith purchaser. You can then avail yourself of an innocent owner defense if you really want to try to hold onto the gun. (I don't know if I would try to hold onto it - I'd feel like a heel if the original owner still wanted it back, and I'd probably just surrender it so it could go back to the owner).

Other than that, there's not much you can do unless you condition the sale on a SN check, or if the seller can produce a chain of title (e.g., a receipt with his name on it from a LGS, for example).